The Perfect Tool For A Successful 2016

If you start talking about organizing or planning my heart starts beating faster and I flush with excitement. I am an organizing geek. It has been long-standing in my life; beginning (I believe) with my love of Lisa Frank notebooks in grade school. Take me to the mall and my eyes will probably glaze over, but if you take me to Office Depot or hand me a homeschool supply catalogue you’ll gain my undying love forever.

When you combine the end of the year with a love for organizing and planners, you get a very excited Amy overworking her little brain with plans and ideas for what the new year will be like.

I’m not a “resolutions” gal, but I do make plans and set goals. You’ll never hear me call them resolutions – I feel like just putting that tag on an idea automatically dooms it to failure. Honestly, think back. When was the last time a “resolution” actually came through for you? If you can name a time then you are one in a billion and I salute you.

For real, I am physically saluting right now.

In 2015 very few goals were achieved for me. I beat myself up for this for quite some time before giving myself a pass on account of THE BABY. The beautiful little boy who came into my life and turned it all upside down. The one who has (literally) not let me sleep through the night in 15 months and brought me to the brink of complete exhaustion.

Y’all, for real. I’m almost 40. I need my sleep.

2016 is coming right around the corner and I’m excited for so many reasons, but one major event is this is the year I turn 40! You heard me right, I said that I am excited about turning 40! I have such anticipation of this next decade of life being one of growth and beauty, but I honestly feel like a lot of the details come down to planning. Goals, objectives, habit formation.

In order to do the work that needs to be done you must have the right tools, and I feel like I’ve spent the last decade of my life trying to find the ones that fit for me. I have gone through so many different planners and calendar systems that I should have worked for a few of the companies so I could at least have made some commission. And don’t get me started on all the digital stuff. I’ve tried them all and have circled back to the realization that I am analog.

Nothing ever seemed to be the right fit. I needed a monthly spread, but I didn’t need so many weekly pages. I never filled them all in and always felt guilty about it (yep, calendar guilt). I couldn’t JUST do monthly though, because I did need SOME room to write. I needed a homeschool planner, but the columns and rows were never just like I needed them, and if I did find one I liked it was never in the same book as the calendar. Some were too frilly, some too utilitarian, some too small to get what I needed out of it or too big to carry in my purse. Honestly, the list could go on and on.

Until this year.

This year I found a system that worked for me. All. year. long. It was exactly what I needed, where I needed it, and I used it every single day. It went every where I went, most of the time even to bed with me at night. It’s called a Bullet Journal. Have you heard of this gem of a system? I don’t know where it’s been all my life, but I’m in love. It’s basically a blank notebook that you turn into the calendar of your dreams. There are TONS of ideas for bullet journals on Pinterest if you want to peruse the many ideas. Go ahead, I’ll wait….. but come back….

Amazing, isn’t it? And so simple! I laid out the whole calendar however I wanted! I added new things when the need arose. I kept blog ideas, recipe lists, homeschool plans, daily to-dos, calendars, and so much more all in the same little notebook. It became an extension to my arm. And all the tools you can use are so much fun! A lot of people who bullet journal use a moleskin, but I found the pages to be too thin. I used a Leatherlook Piccadilly Journal, which held up all year through a lot of handling AND is cheaper than moleskin. Yeah yeah.

If you have struggled with the right planning system for your home and homeschool, this could be it.

New Year’s Eve is looming and I’m goal setting and planning. I can’t wait to share with you my big plans for 2016. See you next year!

How are you planning for 2016? Do you have goals and plans in mind already?

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